I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an attachment for a skid steer loader-type work vehicle, and more particularly to a hydraulically-actuated grapple for use in handling compacted silage.
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
For many years, dairy farms have stored corn stalks and other forage plants as silage in tall, vertical tanks called silos. The plant material is collated, chopped into pieces and fed into a stationary machine called as “silo filler” that would further chop the stalks and blow them up a narrow tube to the top of a tower silo. Current technology uses mechanical forage harvesters that collect and chop the plant material, and deposit it in trucks or wagons. These forage harvesters can be either tractor-drawn or self-propelled. They blow the silage into the wagon via chute at the rear or side of the machine. Silage may also be emptied into a bagger, which puts the silage into a large plastic bag that is laid out on the ground. Typically, these bags may have a diameter anywhere from four to ten feet and may be 200 feet or more in length.
Silage undergoes anaerobic fermentation, which typically starts about 48 hours after the bag is filled. The process converts sugars to acids and exhausts an oxygen present in the crop material. Fermentation is essentially complete after about two weeks. When bagging of silage is employed, it must be firmly packed to minimize the oxygen content or it will spoil.
The ensiled product retains a much larger proportion of its nutrients than if the crop had been dried and stored as hay or stover. Bulk silage is commonly fed to dairy cattle. Common forages converted to silage include several varieties of grasses, herbaceous legumes, alfalfa and sorghums. When the silage is loaded into silage bags, the material becomes highly compacted and tightly contained so as to minimize oxygen exposure. As such, the material within the bag becomes somewhat entangled and solid in its texture.
When it is desired to remove the compacted silage from the bag in quantities sufficient to feed, say, a herd of say 50 cows, front end loaders, also referred to as skid steer loaders, may be used to remove a quantity of silage and load IT onto a truck for transport to a feeding site. It has also been a practice to incorporate a hydraulic grapple onto the bucket of a skid steer loader to facilitate separating silage from the compacted mass and loading the separated quantity into the bucket of the skid steer loader. The process starts at one end of the elongated bag and before too long, the ground on which the skid steer loader must operate becomes quite slippery from the moist silage and the weather. As a result, the skid steer loader wheels frequently loose traction and the vehicle can become stuck, especially where the grapple tines are embedded in the tightly compacted silage. It may then become necessary to dump the full bucket or hook up the skid steer loader to a truck being loaded using a chain to pull it free from the compacted silage. This, of course, takes time that can be better spent on other chores.
The present invention provides a novel and non-obvious solution to the aforementioned problem.